


Along Came a Spider

by Aria6



Series: A Coyote's Stories [6]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen, Not A Happy Ending, Sort-of character death, hollow transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-03-11 23:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3336527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria6/pseuds/Aria6





	Along Came a Spider

Juushiro frowned as he tried to purify a tiny hollow. It was only one of many, agile and very difficult to catch. He finally hit it with a blast of lightning and it shriveled, vanishing with a tiny scream.

Juushiro paused to catch his breath, looking around. He couldn't believe there was such a nest of hollows in Soul Society. Of course, it was all due to the bizarre, unholy phenomena in the middle of the valley. If he hadn't seen the lake with his own eyes Juushiro would never have believed it.

This valley was a caldera. That, immediately, was a very strange thing. Soul Society had no known volcanos, unsurprising since the whole place was basically made of reishi. It wasn't like the physical world, which was probably why the lake in the middle of the caldera was so strange. During the day, it spat out positive reishi, infusing the air with an incredibly dense power. But at night…

Juushiro looked towards the lake. He could see the furnace like eruptions of dark reishi. They were feeding the massive flocks of hollows that lived here. Basic hollows swarmed the lake at night. Adjuchas paused to drink from the banks. And hundreds of these tiny little spider hollows took sustenance from the waters in between preying on each other.

His entire Division was doing its best to clean out the place. Now that they knew this place existed, it was necessary to purify the hollows. A treacherous part of his mind informed him that the hollows had never been a problem until now… they couldn't leave the lake, if they did they lost their easy source of food… but he ignored it. It was their duty to rid the world of hollows and soon, this corner of Soul Society would be safe again. Although what they would do to keep the hollows from returning was beyond him. Perhaps Mayuri would come up with something.

A small scrape was the only warning he had. Battle hardened reflexes saved him as a sword headed for his head. Juushiro countered, his blade scraping against a weapon that was dark as night. He briefly registered pale skin and light brown, short hair before his opponent leapt away. His eyes went wide as he beheld his opponent.

She was a hollow. That much was obvious from the hole in her chest, positioned directly over her heart. But other than that, she was bizarre beyond belief. Juushiro almost thought she was an arrancar, but he had the feeling that Aizen had nothing to do with this particular monster. Her face reminded him of Kiyone… girlishly cute, but with a cruel smile that was nothing like his 3rd Seat had ever worn. Her hair just brushed her shoulders, held in place with a small circlet of white bone. Her breasts were full and covered only by a very brief little bikini top.

What made her horrifying beyond measure was her lower body. Her hips met with the black, chitinous body of a giant spider. Juushiro felt his gorge rising as he looked at the hideous juxtaposition. He'd never liked spiders…

"Why are you killing my children, shinigami?" She said, her eyes raking him over. They were milky white, almost blind looking. But he was sure she could see quite well.

"Your… children?" He asked and she smiled, amused now.

"You must be dense. My little spiderlings. It is quite unfair, what you are doing. They are far too weak for you." She said pleasantly and he swallowed, his eyes widening. Juushiro had never, in all his life, heard of a hollow breeding. "May I ask why shinigami have come to our little haven? It is so out of the way for you."

"You are hollows and we are shinigami. It is our duty to purify you." He said bluntly. The hollow tilted her head to one side, waiting for him to say anything more. Then she shifted, her eight legs moving idly.

"That's all?" She asked and Juushiro just looked at her. Wasn't it enough? "Ah. What a pointless thing to die for… and die you will, with all the others. Already, you are doomed."

"I think not, hollow." Juushiro said with absolute certainty. His entire Division was present. They would easily be able to handle the hollows here and he would take this thing. She laughed breathily before suddenly lunging at him. Her speed was good but not taichou level and he countered easily, not even bothering with his shikai. Her reiatsu felt lieutenant level at best.

He almost didn't survive finding out how wrong he was. After a bit of fencing about, the female hollow suddenly got serious. Her speed abruptly increased as her reiatsu also raised. Juushiro released his shikai just in time to absorb and redirect a blood red cero. She dodged with terrifying grace, her expression not surprised, merely considering.

"A cero. I see… absorption and redirection? Yet so fast. Impressive." She murmured as their blades continued to clash. Her legs seemed like a weak point to him but he quickly discovered it was not so. The armoring there was strong enough that she often used them to block his blows. "But it will avail you nothing. Even now, my mates seal the mountain passes against your kind. None will escape our trap."

"What?!" Juushiro extended his senses and suddenly felt a bit of panic. His shinigami… he could feel them fighting hard, very hard. And there were power signatures out there, hollow powers rising that dwarfed theirs. "What are you?" He suddenly snapped out and the female in front of him chuckled, her voice far too sweet for something so evil.

"Silly man, I am a vasto lorde. And I have been raising my children here for millennia. My daughters I exile to raise their own broods while my sons stay, like the good boys they are. Tell me, are you a good boy?" She said before laughing. Something about that very much amused her. "I think you would make a better daughter than a son…" Juushiro had no idea what she was talking about and he didn't care. His eyes narrowed with determination to end the abomination in front him.

The end finally came when she managed to take him by surprise. Juushiro knew she was a spider but still didn't expect her to capable of shooting webs. She timed it perfectly, managing to pin him between two trees. His swords were both badly tangled in the webbing but his mouth was free.

"Hado – mrph!" A hand suddenly went across his mouth and Juushiro struggled violently as he felt teeth tear into his shoulder. There was a spreading coldness that he recognized, to his horror, as some kind of venom.

Then nothing.

When he awoke next it was to a scene out of a horror novel.

Juushiro lifted his head, vaguely aware of a strange push and pull, almost like he was in a full body hammock. His eyesight was hazy but gradually cleared to reveal the room. As it did, his breath caught and his mind briefly locked up as he tried to process what he was seeing.

He was in some kind of underground cavern. There were silky, silvery webs in every corner of the place, delicate lines of webbing leading between them. As he watched, tiny little spiderling hollows ran across those lines, almost looking like they were playing. But they couldn't be, could they? The piping sounds they made almost sounded like words.

What shocked him into numb horror, though, were the shinigami caught in the webs. He could see Kiyone, looking wan and pale, her eyes closed and her arms and legs spread, captured in the web. He could see Sentaro. His eyes were open and he was looking at his partner in absolute hopelessness. Then he looked towards Juushiro and their eyes met.

"I'm sorry taichou… I'm sorry…" He sounded so heartbroken, so defeated. Juushiro opened his mouth to reassure the man that it wasn't his fault but found that he couldn't. There was webbing over his mouth. Strangely, it didn't stop him from breathing but it did stop his voice.

"Silence, shinigami." A male voice, deep and heavy as a gong, said. Another spider hollow walked through the cavern, casually seizing a spiderling and biting into it. The little thing shrieked and gore splattered over the stone, making Juushiro's gorge rise. "When will she be back? I'm getting hungry and these shinigami are looking damned tasty."

"She'll be back when she gets back. And stop eating the offspring, it's hardly fair." A second voice said and Juushiro turned his head to see another male spider hollow sitting in a web. His hair was long and golden and looked very well groomed. "Settle down. Have a nap." He suggested and the first growled.

"I'm not like you, I can't sleep all the damned time." The first hollow said irritably before he paused, licking his bloody lips. His hair was jet black and cut extremely short and his face, what Juushiro could see of it, was quite handsome. "Why don't we spar?"

"Boys." Came a voice from above and Juushiro swallowed as he saw the female hollow from earlier. She slid down a rope of fine silk, dangling in the air for a moment upside down before flipping herself upright in a smooth, graceful move. Truthfully, everything about her was smooth and graceful… if you could appreciate spiders. "Have you started the sorting?"

"Yes. I would say only the little girl and the man with the white headband are worthy of you, mother-mate." The second male said, climbing down from his place in the web. "And the taichou, of course."

"Plenty of the others are good food for us. I'm hungry mother. Please pick one out for me?" The first male said and Juushiro closed his eyes, struggling not to cry. So this was to be their fate? The female sighed.

"Always, always you are hungry… this one." She selected his eighth seat and Juushiro struggled with all his might against his bindings. "And no playing with your food. They fought well, we will eat them in a humane fashion."

"Humane?" The hollow sounded amused but then winced as a leg hit him in the back of his head. "Yes, mother-mate." He said obediently before crawling up the form of the bound man. He was awake and aware, but gagged by some webbing. His eyes were round with terror but as Juushiro watched, the spider hollow bit him and those eyes rolled back into his head. Then the hollow settled in, nursing his unconscious snack. Juushiro wanted to vomit.

"You see, shinigami taichou, we have three kinds of venom." The female said in amusement and his attention was pulled back to her. "The first we have deadens all pain and usually causes the victim to fall unconscious. Gentle, no? The next we have merely creates paralysis. It does absolutely nothing to deaden the victims' senses or rid them of pain. Cruel, no?" She laughed softly and he desperately wanted to rid the world of this terrifying monster. "The last we have is our proper feeding bite. It is a venom that causes the flesh to liquefy, so we can eat it up. Imagine that paired with paralysis… but I only do that to victims I hate. I do not hate you, shinigami, so your death will be easier than that." She promised but he felt no gratitude. One way or another they were going to be eaten alive.

He was forced to watch, utterly helpless, as the female began portioning out his shinigami. Several she earmarked for her sons. Others, mostly unseated, were disdainfully relegated to spiderling food. The hollows handled that by using their first bite on them, then cutting them free of the webs and placing them in a special spot designated for the spiderlings. Soon, dozens of those tiny little hollows were swarming his fallen men. They did not look human at all yet and he wondered, feverish and sick, when they would gain their human like attributes. Or perhaps some of them never would?

Then the female examined Sentaro and Kiyone before claiming them for herself. Sentaro was struggling to be strong, his face pale yet composed as the hollow bit him on the throat. Then his whole body went lax as the venom took effect, easing him into unconsciousness. That was good because she immediately went down, tearing away the clothing from his abdomen before biting that firm flesh. Juushiro closed his eyes but couldn't blot out the sounds, as she sucked up the liquefied muscle and internal organs. Eventually, the sounds of sucking and swallowing stopped. He opened his eyes but then gagged as he saw his very pale, very dead third seat. Sentaro's belly was a hollowed out ruin.

Kiyone got the same treatment and Juushiro couldn't help the tears that slid down his cheeks. How could he have failed them this way? He'd led them all to ruin… but they'd had no idea so many powerful hollows were here. Yamamoto had ordered the Thirteenth to cleanse this area, confident in their strength. How had it all gone so horribly wrong?

"Do not despair, shinigami. Soon, they will be reborn. And so will you…" Juushiro didn't understand what she meant and couldn't ask, even if he'd wanted to. There was a flash of pain as fangs dipped into his neck, injecting their venom. He struggled against it but it easily overcame him.

Then there was nothing but darkness.

The next thing Juushiro was aware of was breaking out of a leathery sack.

He wasn't really Juushiro, of course. He had no name at this point. He was only one of a hundred little spiderlings escaping their warm, comfortable homes for the dangerous but necessary first step in their evolution. He was vaguely aware of a larger form above them, moving with delicate care not to crush any of their fragile bodies. Then the form bent over and spat out something that smelled delicious. Spiderlings swarmed it with happy little cries, devouring the substance. The new little spiderling joined in, jostling his siblings aside in an effort to get as much as he could.

Being a pre-verbal spiderling wasn't really much fun. It was definitely an eat-or-be-eaten existence. Everything seemed to prey on them. Other hollows ate them, sometimes their sires ate them – there was one in particular to be wary of – and most of all, they ate each other. Although that involved a surprising amount of strategy. Sometimes, one spiderling became far more powerful than his or her siblings and thought he or she could kill any of the others. Then, inevitably, the less powerful spiderlings banded together and brought the strong one down. Alliances came and went, in their mad little scramble to survive and thrive.

This particular spiderling had an alliance with two of his siblings. He wasn't sure why he'd picked them. They just seemed right. They smelled good and the way they bit and played with each other amused him. Something about them just seemed so familiar. He wasn't sure what it was but he liked them and that was good enough.

Together, they tricked and tormented their siblings mercilessly. They didn't just eat them themselves, they tricked them into various traps. Leading them to destruction at the hands of other menos, betraying them in various ways… oh, they were tricky little spiderlings. But they had to be. They all sensed that only a few could survive and be accepted and all three of them were determined to be the ones that made it.

One day, a critical step in their evolution happened. They would never be certain what caused it. But all three of them were tired, so tired, so they spun little webs around themselves. And when they woke up the next day, they were different. Little hands – hands? – tore free of the webbing and the little spiderling in charge spoke his first word.

"…Mami…?" And the much bigger spider, who seemed much smaller now, turned and looked at him. For the first time, her eyes really focused and he knew that she saw him.

"Mami?"

"Mami!" His two companions broke free of their webs and their piping little voices joined his. She smiled and knelt beside them, cuddling them in her arms. For the first time, they all felt truly loved.

Later, of course, they would understand how it worked. The great spider hollows, the spider vasto lorde, birthed as many as a hundred babies at once. They didn't take care of them because they couldn't. They just fed them, in a rather indifferent fashion, and waited for them to speak. Speaking was a sign to instincts that a child was really real. That a spiderling had reached the point of survival and now could be given individual attention.

And that was precisely what happened. Over the next few years, their mami and papis taught and prepared them for their lives in the outside world. Juushiro learned all of their names… their mami was Liee Arana. Their papi with the golden hair was Tarran Arana and their last papi, with the black hair, was Mssiro Arana. And they gave themselves names. He was Juushiro. His two siblings were Sentaro and Kiyone.

Juushiro liked Tarran a lot. He was lazy but funny and vaguely reminded him of someone, someone very important. He would often give them rides, letting all three of them settle on his back as he moved faster than the children could. They would hold on and squeal in joy as he moved with such grace and power. Someday, they all knew they would have this power too.

None of them liked Mssiro as much. He seemed to regard them as a nuisance to be avoided. They returned the favor and avoided him as much as they could. They all loved their mami, though. Liee was always teaching them things, patiently explaining over and over until they understood. Then, one day she set them down for a very serious talk.

"It is almost time for you to enter your reproductive maturity." Their mami said bluntly and all three of the children looked at each other, daunted. That sounded a bit scary. "Juushiro, you identify as male. I understand and respect that but you should know that you are the strongest. Normally, a male does not serve a weaker female. It would be more fitting if you were female."

"But I… uh… how…?" Juushiro stammered, wondering what she meant. Although none of them really had sexual attributes yet. Kiyone was as flat and boyish as Sentaro, even though she identified as female. His mami smiled before explaining.

"Before you go into sexual maturity you will spin another web. This time, though, you will have a choice. You can choose if you wish to be male for female." She said as they listened intently. "Normally, a female will rule. We are bigger and stronger." That was true, with regards to their spider bodies at least. Their mami was quite a bit larger than their papi's. "If Kiyone becomes female but you do not, she will be in charge. But from what I have observed of you that would be odd, at best."

"I wouldn't like that…" Kiyone murmured and Sentaro nodded. They both seemed quite disturbed by the idea and Juushiro frowned. He was reluctant to become female although… a strange image flashed through his mind. A man in pink, speaking to a woman and smiling. Something about that image hurt and made him want to be female. Who was that man? Why did he feel so important?

"But there can be two females in a group?" He asked. Their mami didn't tolerate another female. She nodded.

"There can be, if one is clearly subordinate to the other. That would be no problem for you." She said and they all nodded. Juushiro was clearly the strongest. "I should tell you more about how we reproduce."

"Oh mami! Tarran gave us the sex talk. He even showed us." Kiyone said, embarrassed, as Sentaro hunched down on all of his legs. Juushiro winced. That HAD been very useful information but quite embarrassing. Their mami laughed, her voice a sweet tinkle.

"No sweety, not the sex talk. I mean reproductive details. We're not like other breeds of hollows." She said as they exchanged glances. "Normal hollows mate to combine broken pieces of souls, in the attempt to create new life. It hardly ever works, but they try. We're different… we swallow down whole souls and gradually accumulate them. When enough powerful ones are present, we feel the need to lay our eggs. In some ways, this is good… we never lack for offspring… but our children are not truly natural born. Other hollows can produce whole souls, similar to a shinigami infant, but we do not. You are all hollowified souls."

"Oh… what's the difference?" Juushiro asked and she smiled at him.

"True hollow offspring have no holes and are born with the potential for great power. The three of you have holes and you may or may not eventually make vasto lorde." She said as Juushiro frowned and Kiyone and Sentaro exchanged a glance. "You, Juushiro, will undoubtedly become vasto lorde. Kiyone and Sentaro may as well but it will take longer. Also, one important point to remember is that you are not technically related to each other, or even your own offspring. The DNA and souls you take from your prey are stored within you and converted to a hollow form. They take nothing from you. Mating is not required for a laying, although the reiatsu boost from it is helpful."

"Oh…" Juushiro frowned as he thought. The next question came to him unbidden. "So when you ate us, you did it because we were strong enough to be good children?" He could vaguely remember being held in webs before being eaten. The thought didn't distress him. She nodded.

"Precisely. The weaker went to your fathers, where they will have no possibility of rebirth. I knew you three would be good and strong." She said affectionately, reaching out to ruffle pure white hair. "Now, are you ready to begin your final transformation?"

"Yes. I will be female." Juushiro said decisively. Somehow, he was sure that would be better when he faced the man in pink again. And he would. Somehow, he was absolutely certain he would.

It felt like no time at all before they were ripping their way out of their final webs. Juushiro paused to look herself over. Her skin was pale as moonlight and her breasts were a good size and well formed. Her hair was very long now, cascading over her back and shoulders. Looking up he saw that Kiyone was girlishly cute now, small but attractive. Sentaro looked very strong and very male, settling easily into his new form.

They stayed with their parents only a short time after that. It was time for them to leave, make their way in the world. There was no reason to leave the caldera, though. It was a great place and while it was mostly claimed, some of the adjuchas could be bullied or killed. It didn't take them long to claim a cave, driving off the previous owner. The adjuchas left, spitting curses at them, to steal someone else's den in turn. The young spiders did not care.

They would settle in to become stronger. Then, Juushiro thought she would go find the man in pink.

Somehow, she knew he was very important to her.

"Oh Juushiro, I'm so sorry." Shunsui looked at the grave for a moment before kneeling and setting a bundle of flowers in front of it. It was far from the only one. Even decades later, everyone remembered Juushiro.

Although what they remembered, most of all, was the manner of his passing. Shunsui closed his eyes in pain at the thought. They had scouted out the caldera in the daytime before determining how they would cleanse it when the hollows came out at night. They had anticipated it wouldn't be easy, with at least a half-dozen adjuchas to deal with. But the Thirteenth had been prepared for that. They hadn't been ready for the vasto lorde. Somehow, the powerful hollows had been hidden completely in the daytime. They had only come out at night, like pus from a gangrenous wound.

Those super powerful hollows had used the dark energy of the lake to seal the only entrance to the caldera. What had followed had been a massacre. The whole place had been a trap and they had walked right into it. They had worked frantically to break the seal but by the time they managed it, it was too late. By the time they had done it, it was morning. They'd found plenty of bodies but no survivors.

Yamamoto had deemed the place too dangerous then and now every entrance they could find was sealed with powerful kido. There were fears that there might be more ways out of that place, but no one was actually too worried. The vasto lorde were clearly feeding off the lake and if they left the caldera, they left that energy behind. Shunsui wished they had just left the hollows alone in the first place. If they hadn't stuck their nose in Juushiro would be alive.

Sighing, he stood up and looked at the grave a final time. He was about to turn away when he heard just the faintest hint of movement. Frowning, he looked around. He was deep in the Seireitei. There should be no danger here… And that would have been true against anyone else. But his enemies – although they didn't think of themselves that way – knew the Seireitei as well as anyone alive. The decades that had passed since their 'deaths' hadn't changed much.

"Shunsui, is that my grave? And are those snowdrops? That's so sweet of you." The voice made him pull out his swords. It was sweet and female yet oddly familiar. Shunsui swallowed as he almost recognized Juushiro's voice in it. Almost, but not quite… this was definitely a woman.

"If I were still alive I'd have done that!" A loud voice said and he blinked. That sounded like…? But it couldn't be.

"I would have done it first! And better!" A second female voice said and Shunsui listened in disbelief, trying to pinpoint where the voices were coming from. The female voice that might or might not be Juushiro was just strange, but these ones were perfectly recognizable and the bickering was even more familiar. "I'd have gotten him a whole flower garden!"

"HAH! I'd have gotten her the most amazing… hey, it's her, remember? Juushiro's female now! You're so stupid!"

"I'm stupid? You're stupider! And you're ugly!" Shunsui almost wanted to cry. This was…

"Sentaro? Kiyone? Did you survive?" He said but even as he said it, he knew it was impossible. They couldn't possibly have survived that. But would they lie to him about it? Strangely enough, the answer to that was no.

"Technically, no. Are we really dead?" Sentaro sounded troubled as Kiyone sighed.

"We were always dead, idiot! We were souls, remember? And you even came from the Living World!" Kiyone said irritably and Shunsui swallowed. Not too many people knew that about Sentaro.

"Are you hollows?" He asked, determined to get this on course. And he still couldn't pinpoint them or detect their reiatsu. It was alarming. There was a brief pause before Juushiro spoke.

"And if we are, will you kill us?" She asked and Shunsui just looked into the growing darkness. "I see." The female voice sounded sad and Shunsui had to struggle against an unaccustomed stab of guilt. As shockingly familiar as they sounded, they had to be hollows. He needed to give them konso, redeem their souls.

"That's not right. She loves you! You were best friends!" Sentaro said before Kiyone interrupted.

"But I love her even more!" She said sharply and Shunsui thoughtfully considered the echoes. He thought he was finally getting a read on her position.

"HAH! I love her the most!"

"Darlings." Juushiro's gently reproving voice easily cut through the banter. "While I appreciate your declarations of undying love, I don't think this is the time. Come, let's show him what we are." Shunsui tensed as three shadows slowly slid out of the trees, riding little threads of spider silk.

"Oh my kami." He breathed as he finally saw what had become of his best friend. "Juushiro, is that really you?" Althought he could see the resemblance. Her face was a feminized version of Juushiro. Her breasts were quite beautiful, hiding behind a very brief little bikini top made out of black leather. Her hollow hole was in her upper abdomen, right beneath her ribcage. A necklace of bone decorated her throat, her mask remnants. There was a double belt of leather around her hips and in it dwelled two swords, mimicking Juushiro's shikai.

That, though, was where the resemblance ended. Shunsui's eyes traveled over the rest of her body and he couldn't hold back an atavistic shudder. He'd never been particularly afraid of spiders but he'd suddenly discovered that his feelings changed when confronted by a giant one. He quickly glanced at Sentaro and Kiyone and found that they were practically identical to their old selves, above the hips. Sentaro's hollow hole was his left eye while Kiyone's was in the very centre of her chest. Sentaro's mask fragments formed a bracket around his missing eye, while Kiyone's were a rather pretty pattern on her hips. They both wore leathers similar to Juushiro's.

"I'm afraid so. I came here for you, Shunsui. I want you to join me." She said, a hint of sorrow in her voice. Her two minions spread out behind her, their hands dropping towards their swords. Shunsui's eyes narrowed.

"Surely you don't expect me to do that." He said evenly and she flashed him a smile that took his breath away. It was so like Juushiro's.

"No, I expect you to fight. Kiyone, Sentaro, leave this to me." She said firmly and there was a soft protest but the two lesser powered hollows backed away. "If I fall go home to mother." Juushiro said even more firmly and Shunsui wondered who 'mother' could be. Then her swords rasped out of their sheaths. "I'm sorry Shunsui."

"I'm sorry too, Juushiro." He whispered before the battle was joined.

If he'd had any doubts that he was facing Juushiro, the battle would have dispelled it. He'd sparred against his best friend dozens, hundreds of times over the years and Juushiro knew every one of his tricks. This hollow did too, and it seemed some of the powers of Juushiro's shikai were still active. Juushiro absorbed the spinning top and tossed it back at him, not to Shunsui's surprise. She knew the color game and leaped up off her shadow every time Shunsui tried to use troll under the bridge. Nothing could leap quite like a spider. It was frustrating, to say the least.

The spider-Juushiro suddenly pressed the attack and Shunsui found himself forced back. Powerful blows kept moving him and he had a sudden suspicion. He tried to dodge to the side but a leg struck him in the stomach. He went flying back into… what?

"Well done!" Juushiro congratulated her former Third Seats as Sentaro and Kiyone both preened. While they had been fighting the two of them had built a great trap of webbing, between two of the graves. Juushiro had been maneuvering him towards it the entire time! Shunsui opened his mouth to attempt a kido but webbing drifted over his face, muffling any sound. "Good. Now, let's get him out of here. We don't really have time…" Fangs bit deep into his shoulder and Shunsui stiffened for a moment before darkness began to creep over his vision. He fought valiantly, wondering if this was what Juushiro had once felt.

Then there was nothing more.

"Mami?" Brown eyes met grey as the little boy hollow, former spiderling, took a few tentative steps towards his elder. Then he blinked. "…Juu?"

"Yes, it's me." The voice wasn't quite right but the young spider hollow didn't mind. Warm arms enfolded him and he snuggled into her comforting arms, bathing in her scent. "Oh Shunsui. I've been waiting for you."

"Shunsui…" He murmured, knowing the name. Visions of the life he'd led before passed through his mind but they were distant, unreal. Yet, that name still meant something. That was him. "Juushiro?" He looked over himself curiously, really seeing and understanding. "…I'm a hollow."

"Yes, you are. We all are. Don't worry Shunsui. Just a few more years for you to mature and we'll be together again, forever." A warm hand ruffled his chestnut brown hair as Shunsui thought about it. He vaguely knew he ought to be upset about this but he couldn't muster up any caring. He was a hollow now and he was going to be with Juushiro again. That seemed more important than anything else.

"Okay." He said as she took his hand and led him out to begin his first lessons in life as a spider hollow. Kiyone and Sentaro were both there to help, enthusiastically guiding their young charge. And the caldera bubbled, casting off its gleaming, dark radiance as the adjuchas drank.

For the hollows of the valley, life was good.


End file.
